The Week That Was
Keeping Up With Kindergarten
It was another exciting week in Kindergarten! Our goldfish have arrived! This week, we spent time studying their structure. We observed them in their environment and wrote down those observations in our Science notebooks.
In Mrs. Lakeway’s class, we have continued to learn about our Reading Super Powers. During your nightly reading with your child, please remind them to use their “Eagle Eyes” (look at the pictures) or get their “Fish Lips” ready (look at the first sound of a word) when they come to a tricky word! We also continued practicing these strategies during our Guided Reading Stations.
Our authors/illustrators have been busy writing with patterns. Some patterns that have helped us write our stories are “I can” “ I like to” and “Look at me. I am”. So far, students are working hard on making their words match their pictures, adding 3 labels, and using 4 realistic colors! Some students are challenging themselves to add details to their sentences! Keep up the hard work!
Ms. Staruch’s class did a close read of the story A House for Hermit Crab. We spent a few days reading and becoming experts on this text. We answered a lot of questions about what happened in the story and also retold the main events of the story. In writing this week, we chose a character from A House for Hermit Crab and wrote details about that character. We also have continued to work on coming up with events and details for our own animal stories that we are writing!
We want to thank all families for your patience over the last few weeks as we were planning our field trip! We appreciate your diligence in sending back those permission slips...Third time’s a charm, right? We are looking forward to our trip to the library on November 5th! Thank you again!
This week’s/last week’s FUNdations letter are: lowercase o, c, a & g
This week’s/ last week’s sight words: no, yes, said, like, my, a
Learning and Fun in Grade One!
The first grade gardeners have been continuing with our planting unit. This week we planted wheat seeds in straws with paper towels and water. Next we made predictions in our scientist notebooks about what would happen to our plants. Is it possible for plants to grow without soil??? Speaking of plants - on Thursday, our first graders will be going on their field trip to Four Town Farm. Everyone is so excited and anxious for this visit to the farm.
Fundations is keeping us focused on digraphs (sh, th, ch, wh, ck) for the past week along with next week as well. We have also been practicing dictation during our Fundations block. Remember, capitals at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end. This week's trick words are: as has, to into. Next week's words are: we, be, he, she, me, for and or. Be sure to practice the spelling of these words with your child often.
In our Collins writing program, our firsties has been busy doing Type 1 writing (making lists ie, favorite Fall activities) and Type 2 writing (writing about one topic with a beginning, middle, and end).
Everyone is gearing up for our annual field trip to Four Town Farm. Chaperone letters went home on Thursday. Many thanks to all the parents who volunteered - we wish we could take you all! Please remember no peanuts/tree nuts in your child’s snack or lunches as we will all be eating together at the farm.
Wishing you all a relaxing and enjoyable long weekend - many thanks to Chris Columbus!!! (Hopefully, we will see the sun!)
What's New in Grade Two
Another amazing week in grade two!
As scientists, we have been focusing on the properties of solids. Last week, we constructed towers to compete in the "Blowdown Showdown". The objective was to build the tallest AND strongest tower. The children got to select several solid materials, including paper cups, wooden cylinders, aluminum foil, straws, wire ties, and more. The major challenge was that no one could use tape or glue. Each creation needed to be designed to "withstand the fan"! Round one included all the towers. Each one was placed in front of a fan on low. Nine towers were able to "withstand the fan". Next week, we will have round 2 and the remaining towers will try to withstand the fan on medium. Please ask your second grader about their thought process and final creation!
Thrills in Third
What an exciting week in 3rd grade! The students have been watching their germinated seeds grow into small plants as we continue to study them for our science investigation. In writing, we are learning about www.vanshopps.com. The students are enjoying learning what good writers do and practicing it with fun Type 1 and 2 writing pieces. We have gotten through www.vansho so far. Ask your child how many they can remember and what the symbols are. In math we focused on subtraction with regrouping. It is a difficult concept, but everyone is using base ten blocks and working hard to learn why and how we regroup. In reading, we are continuing to practice what good readers do while reading independently. We are also doing a read aloud in each class. 3B is reading The Wild Robot and 3T is reading Harry Potter. Ask your child what has happened so far. Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!
Learning More in Grade 4
4th Graders have been reading Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing and they love it! It is fun to watch them enjoy a classic. They have also been responding to questions in reading using details from the text and learning how to summarize larger books, which are difficult skills!
In math, we have been reviewing the connection between multiplication and division. They have also learned that they can solve division problems by using repeated subtraction. The more the children know their facts, the easier the next few chapters will be!
The children have been exploring the properties of soil in science. We recently conducted an experiment that showed the children how physical weathering works. We shook different rocks in jars to see how they break apart. Next week, they will learn about chemical weathering.
We want to thank everyone who donated money to the Winsor Walk-a-Thon! Enjoy the long weekend!
The Fabulous Five
In reading workshop, we have been working on our Character Unit. Our focus this week was walking in a character’s shoes by envisioning, predicting, and inferring to generate a deeper understanding of the characters. The fifth graders worked in their guided reading groups and shared from our character charts in our reader’s notebooks what we inferred, envisioned, and predicted about each character in our novels. In our read aloud, Fish in a Tree, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, we have read actively by empathizing with the main character in ways that help us anticipate what the character will do next. Ask your child to share with you their anchor chart they created about their story characters, as well as their reaction to what is happening to those characters at that moment in the story.
In our unit on multiplication, the students have been discovering strategies that can be used to multiply whole numbers. They explored multiplication patterns involving powers of 10 and used these patterns to mentally compute products. The students were also introduced to the distributive property this week as a way of visualizing and rewriting a multiplication problem. By applying their understanding of place value, the students used partial products to multiply numbers. This is the first step in understanding the distributive property as we continue to develop deeper number sense.
Thank You to all the Walk-A-Thon Volunteers
Without your help, great events to raise money for our students cannot happen. Thanks so much for braving the wind and cold to be with us!
Thank you to our community for being our partners in education. Have a wonderful weekend. We look forward to the return of our students on Tuesday, October 15th.
That Was
Keeping Up With Kindergarten
It was another exciting week in Kindergarten! Our goldfish have arrived! This week, we spent time studying their structure. We observed them in their environment and wrote down those observations in our Science notebooks.
In Mrs. Lakeway’s class, we have continued to learn about our Reading Super Powers. During your nightly reading with your child, please remind them to use their “Eagle Eyes” (look at the pictures) or get their “Fish Lips” ready (look at the first sound of a word) when they come to a tricky word! We also continued practicing these strategies during our Guided Reading Stations.
Our authors/illustrators have been busy writing with patterns. Some patterns that have helped us write our stories are “I can” “ I like to” and “Look at me. I am”. So far, students are working hard on making their words match their pictures, adding 3 labels, and using 4 realistic colors! Some students are challenging themselves to add details to their sentences! Keep up the hard work!
Ms. Staruch’s class did a close read of the story A House for Hermit Crab. We spent a few days reading and becoming experts on this text. We answered a lot of questions about what happened in the story and also retold the main events of the story. In writing this week, we chose a character from A House for Hermit Crab and wrote details about that character. We also have continued to work on coming up with events and details for our own animal stories that we are writing!
We want to thank all families for your patience over the last few weeks as we were planning our field trip! We appreciate your diligence in sending back those permission slips...Third time’s a charm, right? We are looking forward to our trip to the library on November 5th! Thank you again!
This week’s/last week’s FUNdations letter are: lowercase o, c, a & g
This week’s/ last week’s sight words: no, yes, said, like, my, a
Learning and Fun in Grade One!
The first grade gardeners have been continuing with our planting unit. This week we planted wheat seeds in straws with paper towels and water. Next we made predictions in our scientist notebooks about what would happen to our plants. Is it possible for plants to grow without soil??? Speaking of plants - on Thursday, our first graders will be going on their field trip to Four Town Farm. Everyone is so excited and anxious for this visit to the farm.
Fundations is keeping us focused on digraphs (sh, th, ch, wh, ck) for the past week along with next week as well. We have also been practicing dictation during our Fundations block. Remember, capitals at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end. This week's trick words are: as has, to into. Next week's words are: we, be, he, she, me, for and or. Be sure to practice the spelling of these words with your child often.
In our Collins writing program, our firsties has been busy doing Type 1 writing (making lists ie, favorite Fall activities) and Type 2 writing (writing about one topic with a beginning, middle, and end).
Everyone is gearing up for our annual field trip to Four Town Farm. Chaperone letters went home on Thursday. Many thanks to all the parents who volunteered - we wish we could take you all! Please remember no peanuts/tree nuts in your child’s snack or lunches as we will all be eating together at the farm.
Wishing you all a relaxing and enjoyable long weekend - many thanks to Chris Columbus!!! (Hopefully, we will see the sun!)
What's New in Grade Two
Another amazing week in grade two!
As scientists, we have been focusing on the properties of solids. Last week, we constructed towers to compete in the "Blowdown Showdown". The objective was to build the tallest AND strongest tower. The children got to select several solid materials, including paper cups, wooden cylinders, aluminum foil, straws, wire ties, and more. The major challenge was that no one could use tape or glue. Each creation needed to be designed to "withstand the fan"! Round one included all the towers. Each one was placed in front of a fan on low. Nine towers were able to "withstand the fan". Next week, we will have round 2 and the remaining towers will try to withstand the fan on medium. Please ask your second grader about their thought process and final creation!
Thrills in Third
What an exciting week in 3rd grade! The students have been watching their germinated seeds grow into small plants as we continue to study them for our science investigation. In writing, we are learning about www.vanshopps.com. The students are enjoying learning what good writers do and practicing it with fun Type 1 and 2 writing pieces. We have gotten through www.vansho so far. Ask your child how many they can remember and what the symbols are. In math we focused on subtraction with regrouping. It is a difficult concept, but everyone is using base ten blocks and working hard to learn why and how we regroup. In reading, we are continuing to practice what good readers do while reading independently. We are also doing a read aloud in each class. 3B is reading The Wild Robot and 3T is reading Harry Potter. Ask your child what has happened so far. Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!
Learning More in Grade 4
4th Graders have been reading Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing and they love it! It is fun to watch them enjoy a classic. They have also been responding to questions in reading using details from the text and learning how to summarize larger books, which are difficult skills!
In math, we have been reviewing the connection between multiplication and division. They have also learned that they can solve division problems by using repeated subtraction. The more the children know their facts, the easier the next few chapters will be!
The children have been exploring the properties of soil in science. We recently conducted an experiment that showed the children how physical weathering works. We shook different rocks in jars to see how they break apart. Next week, they will learn about chemical weathering.
We want to thank everyone who donated money to the Winsor Walk-a-Thon! Enjoy the long weekend!
The Fabulous Five
In reading workshop, we have been working on our Character Unit. Our focus this week was walking in a character’s shoes by envisioning, predicting, and inferring to generate a deeper understanding of the characters. The fifth graders worked in their guided reading groups and shared from our character charts in our reader’s notebooks what we inferred, envisioned, and predicted about each character in our novels. In our read aloud, Fish in a Tree, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, we have read actively by empathizing with the main character in ways that help us anticipate what the character will do next. Ask your child to share with you their anchor chart they created about their story characters, as well as their reaction to what is happening to those characters at that moment in the story.
In our unit on multiplication, the students have been discovering strategies that can be used to multiply whole numbers. They explored multiplication patterns involving powers of 10 and used these patterns to mentally compute products. The students were also introduced to the distributive property this week as a way of visualizing and rewriting a multiplication problem. By applying their understanding of place value, the students used partial products to multiply numbers. This is the first step in understanding the distributive property as we continue to develop deeper number sense.
Thank You to all the Walk-A-Thon Volunteers
Without your help, great events to raise money for our students cannot happen. Thanks so much for braving the wind and cold to be with us!
Thank you to our community for being our partners in education. Have a wonderful weekend. We look forward to the return of our students on Tuesday, October 15th.